Indian Linguistic Families of America, North of Mexico: Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1885-1886, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891, pages 1-142Powell, John Wesley
History
Indian Linguistic Families of America, North of Mexico: Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1885-1886, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891, pages 1-142
Powell, John Wesley
Indians of North America -- Languages; Indians of North America -- Languages -- Bibliography
> Capistrano, Latham in Proc. Philolog. Soc. Lond., 85, 1856 (includes
Netela, of San Luis Rey and San Juan Capistrano, the San Gabriel or
Kij of San Gabriel and San Fernando).
In his synopsis of the Indian tribes[78] Gallatin’s reference to this
great family is of the most vague and unsatisfactory sort. He speaks of
“some bands of Snake Indians or Shoshonees, living on the waters of the
river Columbia” (p. 120), which is almost the only allusion to them to
be found. The only real claim he possesses to the authorship of the
family name is to be found on page 306, where, in his list of tribes and
vocabularies, he places “Shoshonees” among his other families, which is
sufficient to show that he regarded them as a distinct linguistic group.
The vocabulary he possessed was by Say.
[Footnote 78: Trans. and Coll. Am. Antiq. Soc., II, 1836.]
Buschmann, as above cited, classes the Shoshonean languages as a
northern branch of his Nahuatl or Aztec family, but the evidence
presented for this connection is deemed to be insufficient.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION.
This important family occupied a large part of the great interior basin
of the United States. Upon the north Shoshonean tribes extended far into
Oregon, meeting Shahaptian territory on about the forty-fourth parallel
or along the Blue Mountains. Upon the northeast the eastern limits of
the pristine habitat of the Shoshonean tribes are unknown. The narrative
of Lewis and Clarke[79] contains the explicit statement that the
Shoshoni bands encountered upon the Jefferson River, whose summer home
was upon the head waters of the Columbia, formerly lived within their
own recollection in the plains to the east of the Rocky Mountains,
whence they were driven to their mountain retreats by the Minnetaree
(Atsina), who had obtained firearms. Their former habitat thus given is
indicated upon the map, although the eastern limit is of course quite
indeterminate. Very likely much of the area occupied by the Atsina was
formerly Shoshonean territory. Later a division of the Bannock held the
finest portion of southwestern Montana,[80] whence apparently they were
being pushed westward across the mountains by Blackfeet.[81] Upon the
east the Tukuarika or Sheepeaters held the Yellowstone Park country,
where they were bordered by Siouan territory, while the Washaki occupied
southwestern Wyoming. Nearly the entire mountainous part of Colorado was
held by the several bands of the Ute, the eastern and southeastern parts
of the State being held respectively by the Arapaho and Cheyenne
(Algonquian), and the Kaiowe (Kiowan). To the southeast the Ute country
included the northern drainage of the San Juan, extending farther east a
short distance into New Mexico. The Comanche division of the family
extended farther east than any other. According to Crow tradition the
Comanche formerly lived northward in the Snake River region. Omaha
tradition avers that the Comanche were on the Middle Loup River,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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